U.S. Pat. No. 8,124,169 discloses an antimicrobial coating system that can be applied to “high touch” surfaces including, for example, counters, tables, and sinks to temporarily disinfect these surfaces by reducing microbial growth. However, these formulations are susceptible to removal by slight and/or moderate frictional forces. Thus, the formulations disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,124,169 have at best temporary antimicrobial activity, but should not be applied to floors due to high pedestrian traffic volume and frictional forces applied thereto that would easily remove these formulations thereby limiting and/or greatly reducing antimicrobial efficacy.
In contrast to the formulations disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,124,169 that can merely withstand slight and/or moderate frictional forces, certain floor coating compositions utilize prepolymers, cross-linking agents, and antimicrobial agents (e.g., including ionic zinc, silver, and/or copper) that polymerize and/or cross-link when applied to flooring surfaces thereby forming a more permanent coating than those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 8,124,169. Even though these systems form permanent coatings, these systems may lose antimicrobial properties/efficacy over time, which leads to an increased presence of gram positive and/or gram negative bacteria (e.g., pathogenic gram positive and/or gram negative bacteria) over time. Thus, even though these formulations are supposedly permanent, these coatings should be removed and re-applied periodically to adequately control and/or prevent microbial growth on surfaces to which these formulations are applied. However, due to the above mentioned polymerization and/or cross-linking processes, removal of these permanent floor systems is very difficult, dangerous, and labor intensive—often requiring application of strong solvent stripping solutions (e.g., highly basic stripping solutions that re-liquefy the coatings) and/or physical grinding processes.
In addition, to the above mentioned problems associated with current antimicrobial compositions, many of the coating formulations known in the art further include unfavorable chemistry that may counteract the antimicrobial agent(s) thereby greatly reducing and, in some instances, even eliminating the antimicrobial properties associated with these formulation's antimicrobial agent.